Tom Willhammar

ZSM-5 Zeolite Single Crystals with b-Axis-Aligned Mesoporous Channels as an Efficient Catalyst for Conversion of Bulky Organic Molecules

The relatively small and sole micropores in zeolite catalysts strongly influence the mass transfer and catalytic conversion of bulky molecules. We report here aluminosilicate zeolite ZSM-5 single crystals with b-axis-aligned mesopores, synthesized using a designed cationicamphiphilic copolymer as a mesoscale template. This sample exhibits excellent hydrothermal stability. The orientation of the mesopores was confirmed by scanning and transmission electron microscopy. More importantly, the b-axis-aligned mesoporous ZSM-5 shows much higher catalytic activities for bulky substrate conversion than conventional ZSM-5 and ZSM-5 with randomly oriented mesopores. The combination of good hydrothermal stability with high activities is important for design of novel zeolite catalysts. The b-axis-aligned mesoporous ZSM-5 reported here shows great potential for industrial applications.

Structure and catalytic properties of the most complex intergrown zeolite ITQ-39 determined by electron crystallography

Porous materials such as zeolites contain well-defined pores in molecular dimensions and have important industrial applications in catalysis, sorption and separation. Aluminosilicates with intersecting 10- and 12-ring channels are particularly interesting as selective catalysts. Many porous materials, especially zeolites, form only nanosized powders and some are intergrowths of different structures, making structure determination very challenging. Here, we report the atomic structures of an aluminosilicate zeolite family, ITQ-39, solved from nanocrystals only a few unit cells in size by electron crystallography. ITQ-39 is an intergrowth of three different polymorphs, built from the same layer but with different stacking sequences. ITQ-39 contains stacking faults and twinning with nano-sized domains, being the most complex zeolite ever solved. The unique structure of ITQ-39, with a three-dimensional intersecting pairwise 12-ring and 10-ring pore system, makes it a promising catalyst for converting naphtha into diesel fuel, a process of emerging interest for the petrochemical industry.

A New Aluminosilicate Molecular Sieve with a System of Pores between Those of ZSM-5 and Beta Zeolite

A new aluminosilicate zeolite (ITQ-39) has been synthesized. This is an extensively faulted structure with very small domains that makes the structure elucidation very difficult. However, a combination of adsorption spectroscopy and reactivity studies with selected probe molecules suggests that the pore structure of ITQ-39 is related to that of Beta zeolite, with a three-directional channel system with large pores (12-MR), but with an effective pore diameter between those of Beta and ZSM-5, or a three-directional channel system with interconnected large (12-MR) and medium pores (10-MR). The pore topology of ITQ-39 is very attractive for catalysis and shows excellent results for the preparation of cumene by alkylation of benzene, while it can be a promising additive for FCC.

Synthesis design and structure of a multipore zeolite with interconnected 12- and 10-MR channels.

A new molecular sieve, ITQ-38, containing interconnected large and medium pores in its structure has been synthesized. The rational combination of dicationic piperidine-derivative molecules as organic structure directing agents (OSDAs) with germanium and boron atoms in alkaline media has allowed the synthesis of ITQ-38 zeolite. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) has been used to elucidate the framework topology of ITQ-38, revealing the presence of domains of perfect ITQ-38 crystals as well as very small areas containing nanosized ITQ-38/ITQ-22 intergrowths. The structure of ITQ-38 is highly related to ITQ-22 and the recently described polymorph C of ITQ-39 zeolite. It shares a common building layer with ITQ-22 and contains the same building unit as the polymorph C of ITQ-39. All three structures present similar framework density, 16.1 T atoms/1000 Å(3).

EMM-23 : A Stable High-Silica Multidimensional Zeolite with Extra-Large Trilobe-Shaped Channels.

Stable, multidimensional, and extra-large pore zeolites are desirable by industry for catalysis and separation of bulky molecules. Here we report EMM-23, the first stable, three-dimensional extra-large pore aluminosilicate zeolite. The structure of EMM-23 was determined from submicron-sized crystals by combining electron crystallography, solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and powder X-ray diffraction. The framework contains highly unusual trilobe-shaped pores that are bound by 21-24 tetrahedral atoms. These extra-large pores are intersected perpendicularly by a two-dimensional 10-ring channel system. Unlike most ideal zeolite frameworks that have tetrahedral sites with four next-nearest tetrahedral neighbors (Q(4) species), this unusual zeolite possesses a high density of Q(2) and Q(3) silicon species. It is the first zeolite prepared directly with Q(2) species that are intrinsic to the framework. EMM-23 is stable after calcination at 540 °C. The formation of this highly interrupted structure is facilitated by the high density of extra framework positive charge introduced by the dicationic structure directing agent.

Stacking disorders in zeolites and open-frameworks - structure elucidation and analysis by electron crystallography and X-ray diffraction

Abstract Intergrowth and stacking disorders are often found in minerals and synthetic zeolites and inorganic open-frameworks. Structure elucidation of stacking disorders in these materials have been difficult and structure solution of stacking disorders in unknown zeolites and open-frameworks has been challenging. There exist no standard methods for structure analysis of such disordered materials. In this review we present various stacking disorders and intergrowth in a number of representative zeolite families containing stacking disorders. These include zeolite beta, SSZ-26/SSZ-33, ITQ-39, ABC-6, ZSM-48, SSZ-31, UTD-1, faujasite FAU/EMT, pentasil ZSM-5/ZSM-11, ITQ-13/ITQ-34, ITQ-22/ITQ-38 etc. Stacking disorders in open-frameworks containing mixed coordinations, including titanosilicates ETS-10 and ETS-4, and the silicogermanate SU-JU-14 are also described. Various crystallographic methods used for solving disordered structures are summarized. The methods include powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), electron diffraction, high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Examples of model building combined with simulations of PXRD and single crystal X-ray diffraction to verify the structure models are given.

Solving complex open‐framework structures from X‐ray powder diffraction by direct‐space methods using composite building units

The crystal structure of a novel open-framework gallogermanate, SU-66 {|(C6H18N2)18(H2O)32|[Ga4.8Ge87.2O208]}, has been solved from laboratory X-ray powder diffraction (XPD) data by using a direct-space structure solution algorithm and local structural information obtained from infrared (IR) spectroscopy. IR studies on 18 known germanates revealed that the bands in their IR spectra were characteristic of the different composite building units (CBUs) present in the structures. By comparing the bands corresponding to Ge—O vibrations in the IR spectra of SU-66 with those of the 18 known structures with different CBUs, the CBU of SU-66 could be identified empirically as the Ge10(O,OH)27 cluster (Ge10). The unit cell and space group (extinction symbol P--a; a = 14.963, b = 31.593, c = 18.759 A) were determined initially from the XPD pattern and then confirmed by selected-area electron diffraction. The structure of SU-66 was solved from the XPD data using parallel tempering as implemented in FOX [Favre-Nicolin & Cerný (2002). J. Appl. Cryst. 35, 734–743] by assuming P21ma symmetry and two Ge10 clusters in the asymmetric unit. Rietveld refinement of the resulting structure using synchrotron XPD data showed the framework structure to be correct and the space group to be Pmma. The framework has extra-large (26-ring) one-dimensional channels and a very low framework density of 10.1 Ge/Ga atoms per 1000 A3. SU-66, with 55 framework atoms in the asymmetric unit, is one of the more complicated framework structures solved from XPD data. Indeed, 98% of the reflections were overlapping in the XPD pattern used for structure solution. Tests on other open-framework germanates (SU-62, SU-65, SU-74, PKU-12 and ITQ-37) for which the XPD data, unit cell, space group and IR spectra were available proved to be equally successful. In a more complex case (SU-72) the combination of FOX and powder charge flipping was required for structure solution.

Controlled growth of hexagonal gold nanostructures during thermally induced self-assembling on Ge(001) surface

Nano-sized gold has become an important material in various fields of science and technology, where control over the size and crystallography is desired to tailor the functionality. Gold crystallizes in the face-centered cubic (fcc) phase, and its hexagonal closed packed (hcp) structure is a very unusual and rare phase. Stable Au hcp phase has been reported to form in nanoparticles at the tips of some Ge nanowires. It has also recently been synthesized in the form of thin graphene-supported sheets which are unstable under electron beam irradiation. Here, we show that stable hcp Au 3D nanostructures with well-defined crystallographic orientation and size can be systematically created in a process of thermally induced self-assembly of thin Au layer on Ge(001) monocrystal. The Au hcp crystallite is present in each Au nanostructure and has been characterized by different electron microscopy techniques. We report that a careful heat treatment above the eutectic melting temperature and a controlled cooling is required to form the hcp phase of Au on a Ge single crystal. This new method gives scientific prospects to obtain stable Au hcp phase for future applications in a rather simple manner as well as redefine the phase diagram of Gold with Germanium.

Structure and vacancy distribution in copper telluride nanoparticles influence plasmonic activity in the near-infrared

Copper chalcogenides find applications in different domains including photonics, photothermal therapy and photovoltaics. CuTe nanocrystals have been proposed as an alternative to noble metal particles for plasmonics. Although it is known that deviations from stoichiometry are a prerequisite for plasmonic activity in the near-infrared, an accurate description of the material and its (optical) properties is hindered by an insufficient understanding of the atomic structure and the influence of defects, especially for materials in their nanocrystalline form. We demonstrate that the structure of Cu1.5±xTe nanocrystals can be determined using electron diffraction tomography. Real-space high-resolution electron tomography directly reveals the three-dimensional distribution of vacancies in the structure. Through first-principles density functional theory, we furthermore demonstrate that the influence of these vacancies on the optical properties of the nanocrystals is determined. Since our methodology is applicable to a variety of crystalline nanostructured materials, it is expected to provide unique insights concerning structure–property correlations.

High-Throughput Synthesis and Structure of Zeolite ZSM-43 with Two-Directional 8-Ring Channels

The aluminosilicate zeolite ZSM-43 (where ZSM = Zeolite Socony Mobil) was first synthesized more than 3 decades ago, but its chemical structure remained unsolved because of its poor crystallinity and small crystal size. Here we present optimization of the ZSM-43 synthesis using a high-throughput approach and subsequent structure determination by the combination of electron crystallographic methods and powder X-ray diffraction. The synthesis required the use of a combination of both inorganic (Cs+ and K+) and organic (choline) structure-directing agents. High-throughput synthesis enabled a screening of the synthesis conditions, which made it possible to optimize the synthesis, despite its complexity, in order to obtain a material with significantly improved crystallinity. When both rotation electron diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy imaging techniques are applied, the structure of ZSM-43 could be determined. The structure of ZSM-43 is a new zeolite framework type and possesses a unique two-dimensional channel system limited by 8-ring channels. ZSM-43 is stable upon calcination, and sorption measurements show that the material is suitable for adsorption of carbon dioxide as well as methane.